Alternative News

Obama ‘Hope’ poster artist says drones have killed hope

"The artist who created the iconic 'Hope' posters during President Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign says he’d choose a different caption now. A camera crew from TMZ asked Shepard Fairey if he’d use the same word underneath his portrait of then-Sen. Obama, given his track record as president. The 43-year-old Fairey paused for a moment as he and a companion got into a waiting vehicle. 'I’d put a few different ones,' Shepard said, adding that some of them may not be fit for print. Then he turned back around to face the crew, thinking of an idea. 'How about drones?' Fairey said." Continue reading →

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How I Learned to Stop Feeling Safe in My Own Country

"Earlier this month, OTM producer Sarah Abdurrahman, her family, and her friends were detained for hours by US Customs and Border Protection on their way home from Canada. Everyone being held was a US citizen, and no one received an explanation. Sarah tells the story of their detainment, and her difficulty getting any answers from one of the least transparent agencies in the country." Continue reading →

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Dwolla CEO Ben Milne: Why charge 25 cents for an $11 million transaction

"Dwolla got its start from a simple idea: that credit card fees are too expensive for merchants and consumers. CEO and cofounder Ben Milne took his frustration really far, building an entirely new payment network to get around credit cards and PayPal. Rather than charge a percentage, Dwolla is free for transactions under $10 and just 25 cents for anything over that amount. Over a billion dollars has changed hands through Dwolla in 2013 alone, and the company has the backing of top investors including Union Square Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz. Plus, why it's keeping its headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDwolla CEO Ben Milne: Why charge 25 cents for an $11 million transaction

Once again the Winklevoss twins get beaten to launching their big idea

"Mark Zuckerberg beat the twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss to the punch in launching Facebook. Now someone else seems to be stealing a march on their plan to launch an investment scheme for bitcoin. The Winklevii’s scheme, unlike SecondMarket’s, is for a public ETF traded on a major exchange open to retail investors. But the SEC may not approve it any time soon because it has yet to work out oodles of legal questions about the cryptocurrency. At a conference last week, the brothers were vague, telling attendees that regulators could set parameters on bitcoin 'over the next 6 to 12 months.'" Continue reading →

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Ex-World Bank Counsel: Lawlessness when USD Loses Reserve Status

"Karen Hudes, a former 20 year employee of the World Bank, contends the U.S. credit rating is on very dubious ground. Hudes says, 'This is actually an underhanded move because they know the U.S. dollar is going to lose its status as an international currency.' What would that look like to the man on the street? Hudes predicts, 'Prices would change on a daily basis. They would double. The number of families that would be employed would be in the minority . . . there would be lawlessness.' Join Greg Hunter as he goes One-on-One with former World Bank lawyer Karen Hudes." Continue reading →

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Government Continues Its Attack On The Fifth And Sixth Amendments

"The courts have already found that simply not answering questions post-arrest can be used as evidence of guilt. But what happens when you ask for legal representation before the police have arrested or detained you? The prosecution argued that Okatan's request for a lawyer was itself an admission of guilt. While we all supposedly have a right to remain silent and the right to an attorney, the government (meaning law enforcement and prosecutors -- both operatives of the state) have been poking and prodding at the amendments' weak spots over the years, turning these 'rights' into privileges that have to be asserted loudly, unwaveringly and timed correctly. What a joke." Continue reading →

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J. Cole and TLC Take Down the War on Drugs in ‘Crooked Smile’

"J. Cole takes on the war on drugs in his new video for the Born Sinner track 'Crooked Smile,' featuring TLC. Cole plays a family man who cares deeply for his daughter, juxtaposing this against a white DEA agent who is also a single father. But though Cole slings baggies of marijuana, he's far from a violent criminal, inviting his parents over for his daughter's birthday and making a cake especially for her. Both sides collide tragically when DEA agents raid the house and Cole's daughter is shot, rattling everyone involved in the takedown. The rapper has a direct message with the video: he is honoring deceased seven-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones, who was killed during a 2010 police raid in Detroit." Continue reading →

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‘Biometric Classroom’ Monitors Students’ Eye Movements And Conversations

"A report from Yahoo News Tuesday detailed a group of New York engineers who are developing a 'biometric classroom' monitoring program that will track students' every move. Sean Montgomery, co-founder and engineer for SensorStar Labs, says tracking students’ eye movements, conversations and smiles with 'EngageSense' cameras will help teachers improve classroom learning. Algorithms in the program will crunch the raw visual and audio data to give teachers detailed information on students’ actions. Teachers will then be advised on how to better engage students." Continue reading →

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Slave Dollars: State Guarantee Private Prisons 96% Occupancy

"If the governments don’t maintain the specified number of people behind bars, they have to pay penalties to the companies that operate private prisons. The state of Colorado paid $2 million to companies because the rate of crime and the number of convicts in the state fell by a third in the last 10 years. The profit driven prisons put pressure on law enforcement and prosecutors to try to charge and convict individuals of more serious crimes just to fill prison beds. It also encourages authorities to send prisoners to private penitentiaries rather than state facilities even if they are cheaper. The number of prisoners in private verses public prisons has increased by 1,664% over the last 19 years." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSlave Dollars: State Guarantee Private Prisons 96% Occupancy

Where Prisoners Are Guaranteed To Private Prisons

"Most quotas require at least 90 percent of the beds in a prison to be filled, according to a new report by the advocacy group In the Public Interest, and quotas were part of nearly two-thirds of the contracts the group analyzed. Prison companies use the profits to expand, effectively pulling the strings on state prison populations as lawmakers must incarcerate a certain number of people — or pay. The state of Arizona recently paid the prison company Management & Training Corp. $3 million for empty beds when a 97 percent quota wasn't met, reported HuffPost's Chris Kirkham. The U.S. leads the world in incarcerating its residents, with one in 100 adults behind bars." Continue reading →

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